True, but under the circumstances, I’d say Alex really should go. I mean, technically, it should be Dan who was king, but Arthur had weird stuff happen to him, so Alex became king. Although, I never quite got why it was them that were the royal ones- there must’ve been millions of pairs of twins, not to mention triplets, quartets, etc. Oh well, suspension of disbelief, right?

They aren’t the next in royal succession due to being twins. They are twins AND the next in royal succession. Period. It’s just coincidence that this time around the next potential heir to the throne was born with a twin. Or is it? Could something behind the scenes have arranged for them to be born twins as a way of breaking the lockout? Hmm…

In any event, the next heir to the throne having a twin is a rare occurrence which Nicodemus had never anticipated being a potential problem. It royally screwed up his plans. Normally there is only ever one potential heir to the throne at a time, so Nic never planned on this eventuality. He figured he had locked human kings out of Dreamland forever with his stunt.

As for how new heirs come about, it’s not very clear how they are chosen but there doesn’t seem to be any genetic lineage involved or anything. Whatever makes a king seems to skip around choosing heirs where it will, regardless of descent.

That would be true except for one small problem. Alex has been the king of Dreamland in the present frame of time since the comic began. Not knowing this fact does not change any thing, it just means that no one knew exactly why Alex was able to come in to Dreamland as an adult, but I believe several characters, including Nastajia I believe, had a guess that was close to him being the new king of Dreamland. Either that or some thing from an entirely different genre of story such as sci-fi. Dan has tried to dream many times after Alex drew what I am going to just flat out claim as Excalibur until some one proves me wrong (feel free to do so). I say he tried many times because they were both still pretty young at that time and Alex had free access to Dreamland every time he slept with the sword on his person, but was locked out completely with out the sword.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if Dan tried, but only managed to partly get into Dreamland, and insted the sword only let him into the Waking Dream world where Aurthur was sent when the bracelet failed? Bet you that would be fun, seeing the past king’s ghost and talking about the happenings in Dreamland.

my question about that though was if did work like that, then would Dan be trapped in the same place as Arthur? I know Arthur wasn’t holding the sword at the time he was trapped, but if I remember correctly (and I could be wrong) his dreamland body and the sword were placed very close together.

Was it explained why Arthur couldn’t hold the sword when he was in the middle of the ritual? *forgot* Is it because it could travel between both worlds?

Hmmm….I think I’m the only person who doesn’t want him to try it. Before anyone gets upset, I want to make it clear that I DO want Dan to go to Dreamland. I’m even okay with the idea of him accepting the kingship he was born to have (mostly 😉 ). I just think that this would be a very very bad idea at this point in time.

Nastajia has made it clear that the thing she needs most from Alex is for him to not disappear on her again. How would it look to her if Dan showed up instead of Alex? What kind of abandonment issues would that re-trigger?

What about the rest of Alex’s friends? How would they feel knowing that at the first sign of difficulty, he ran from them and foisted their problems onto a stranger? (I know they’ve all heard stories of Dan, but they don’t really know him.)

What about worst case scenario? If Dan goes to Dreamland and gets killed by Nic or the Wraiths because they recognize that the true king has arrived and isn’t protected by Elvish armor, how would Alex feel? I get the feeling that dead in Dreamland is dead in the real world since we already know injuries carry over.

Now for the confusing part…If Dan dies in Dreamland, would Alex ever get to go back? He wouldn’t have the sword in his possession (unless the necklace stayed on Dan’s body here), and he’s an adult. He could lock himself away from his friends permanently.

Sorry for the long comment. This situation has really gotten me thinking.

I agree with you on every part but the Nastajia abandonment issue. Dan could conceivably just say that it was an experiment, which would be half the case and so would not be a lie.

It’s possible that in being a twin, he’d materialize within the armor in a kind of 2 bodies are one Arthur descendant particle in Dreamland. Though he would still be completely lost for how to not become dead anyway thanks to his not going through Orion’s training and the power of montage as Aly said.

No youre not alone on this one Julie, though I don’t quiet agree on Nastajia feeling abandoned. I believe she would be more upset over a king trying to avoid his responsibilities. I do believe that Alex made this offer to Dan more from a position of trying to avoid what’s going on.
However if someone was offering me a chance to go to the dreamlands I’d be all gimme gimme gimme you can be king tomorrow.

Oh and Scott, I haven’t said this for a while but this comic is still choca block full of awesomeness, with a heavy dash or epicness.

I absolutely agree. I don’t think that this is a good time to be experimenting at all. Alex is king, and he needs to get ready for war. Dan, much as I hate to say it, ha been waiting all his life, and so he can wait a while longer. Dan would become Alex’s advisor perhaps, like Merlin for Arthur. But he can’t go to Dreamland now!! (even though I do think he would have the armor on.)

Here is my two cents worth… Dan shouldn’t take the necklace. For one reason Alex NEEDS to grow up… Yes I realize he is still young and in college but this is running away from his problems not doing anything to solve them…. I know Dan really wants to take a tour of Dreamland but at this moment in time I think it is very unadvisable to even think about the experiment. And I do remember back a few chapters when they were doing the talking thru the satchel that the necklace poofed as Alex went into dreamland so it is a one person ride.
Still a great ramble and I love this comic….

I might be the minority here, but I can’t WAIT to see if Dan gets to go to dreamland. He’s been recording all the adventures from the start. Now he gets to see this mystical world he’s believed in for so long. Also, while Alex might get in trouble for skirting his responsibilities, that’s Alex’s choice. Do it, Dan, DO IT! 😀

Loving this so far. It’d like to see them both go as well… i can’t figure out why Dan hasn’t asked to try it out before. Something i haven’t seen brought up yet: what if Dan accepts, then Alex goes all “my precious!!!!!!” on him?

On a sidenote… the second “I…” feels a bit choppy to me. Other than that it all feels just right.

Seriously, I’m annoyed with Alex again. I thought he’d recognized that he had to suck it up and do his job — for Nastajia, if for nothing else — and here he is trying to pawn the responsibility off on Dan, who while smart has never been in Dreamland before, and hasn’t been accepted as King, and — let’s be honest here — doesn’t appear to have the inherent athletic outlook which will be needed when the Monstrous Wraiths of the Nightmare Realm come to CLAIM HIS SOUL!

I’m not sure it would work. Think about this, if it were as simple as touching the sword and going to sleep to wake up in dreamland, don’t you think Artur would of tried it? Based on that, I think the sword is bound to one person and will only work as a pathway for that person.

The one thing that could upset that concept is that they are twins, but not sure that is enough.

Oh, MAN! I’ve wanted Dan to do this for months!!! (Dare I say over a year? Meh, it was a hopeless wish a year ago, so just for months is fine!)
My only problem with it is that it’s a bit of an inconvenient time in Dreamland. They have a war to start and need Alex back, ASAP. It would be kind of weird and would slow them down (not to mention being dangerous and possibly angering Ol’ Nic and the Wraiths even more) for Dan to show up instead.

But that’s all outweighed by the total awesomeness that Dan might actually get there, in my mind. Hee, hee!!
DO IT, Dan! You know you wanna! Do it! Do it NAOUGHW!